Applied Energy 122 (2014) 143–150

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Determination of specific heat ratio and error analysis for engine

heat release calculations
G. Abbaszadehmosayebi ⇑, Lionel Ganippa
Centre for Advanced Powertrain and Fuels Research (CAPF), School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge, London UB8 3PH, UK

h i g h l i g h t s

 A new method is proposed to calculate specific heat capacities ratio (c).

 Diesel fuel, Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) and Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME) are compared.
 Error calculation is done in this work for main combustion parameters.
 The parameter called ‘‘combustion burn factor (Ci)’’ is introduced.
 The benefits of using Ci in combustion analysis are presented.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The burnt fraction f of Wiebe equation has been shown to be dependent only on the newly defined
Received 7 November 2012 parameter ‘combustion burn factor (Ci)’; and the benefits of expressing heat release rate with respect
Received in revised form 4 January 2014 to Ci have been presented. The errors associated with the determination of apparent heat release rate
Accepted 12 January 2014
(Ahrr) and the cumulative heat release (Cum.Hrr) from the measured cylinder pressure data and the
Available online 28 February 2014
assumed specific heat ratio (c) was determined and compared. The c affected the calculated Ahrr more
than the cylinder pressure. Overestimation of c resulted in an underestimation of the peak value of the
Keywords:
Ahrr and vice versa, this occurred without any shift in the combustion phasing. A new methodology
Heat release analysis
Error calculation
has been proposed to determine the instantaneously and mean value of c for a given combustion. This
Combustion burn factor new methodology has been applied to determine c for a wide range of engine operating conditions
Wiebe equation and for different fuels.
Heat capacities ratio Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Biodiesel

1. Introduction
Diesel engines are widely used in the field of transportation,
agricultural and heavy industries sectors owing to their high effi-
ciency, low fuel consumption, durability as well as low CO2 emis-
sions [1]. Control of emissions from diesel engines has been one
of the most important challenges for the engine manufacturers.
Stringent legislations have been proposed to reduce the harmful
soot and NOx emissions from diesel engines which cause air pollu-
tion, affecting the human health and environment [2–9]. To ad-
dress these challenges several advances have been made through
the development of high pressure common rail fuel injection sys-
tem, to precisely control the injection events and also for adopting
different injection strategies [10–15]. In addition to this exhaust
gas recirculation, boosting, and exhaust gas after treatment are
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 79 449 10430.
E-mail address: REZA.ABBAS@BRUNEL.AC.UK (G. Abbaszadehmosayebi).
other promising strategies that are widely used to develop cleaner
diesel engines [16–21]. Fuel type, quality and its composition also
play a vital role in reducing most of the engine out emissions [22–
26]. The engine exhaust emission characteristics are strongly cor-
related to the in-cylinder combustion processes. The combustion
characteristics in engines are mainly understood through the
apparent heat release rate (Ahrr) that was determined from the
first law of thermodynamics [1]. The Ahrr model without heat ex-
change to cylinder walls is shown in Eq. (1).
 
dQ c dV 1 dp
¼ p þ V ð1Þ
dh c  1 dh c  1 dh
Where Q is the total released heat in J and h is the instantaneous
crank angle in degree, c is the ratio of specific heat (Cp/Cv), p is
the measured cylinder pressure in Pa and V is the cylinder volume
in m3.
The Ahrr is strongly related to engine operating conditions, en-
gine specifications as well as physical and chemical properties of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.01.028
0306-2619/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
144 G. Abbaszadehmosayebi, L. Ganippa / Applied Energy 122 (2014) 143–150

Nomenclature

Ahrr apparent heat release rate V volume

Ci combustion burn factor Vc clearance volume
CP special heat capacity constant pressure a relative apparent heat release rate error
Cum.Hrr cumulative heat release rate b absolute error on apparent heat release rate
Cv special heat capacity constant volume Dh combustion duration
f burn fraction c specific heat capacities ratio
JME Jatropha Methyl Ester h instantaneous crank angle
p in-cylinder pressure h50 the crank angle at centre of combustion
Q total released heat hmax the crank angle where Ahrr reaches to its maximum va-
RF Residual Function lue
RME Rapeseed Methyl Ester h0 the crank angle where Ahrr reaches to positive value

fuel. In addition to this the Ahrr provides information about igni-
tion delay (the time interval between the start of injection and
the start of combustion, the start of combustion is determined as
the time instant when the Ahrr data crosses the time-axis after
the start of injection), level of premixed and diffusion burn charac-
teristics of the combustion process, which are useful for the under-
standing of exhaust soot and NOx emissions.
The burn fraction or burn rates of a combustion processes are
normally characterised using Wiebe equation [27]. The Wiebe
equation presents the relationship between the burnt fraction (f)
and the three main combustion parameters, viz., (i) the instant at
which heat release rate becomes positive, h0; (ii) instantaneous
crank angle, h; and (iii) the duration of combustion, Dh.
"  mþ1 #
h  h0
f ¼ 1  exp a
Dh
A11, A14 and A15 (at a load of 5 bar BMEP) for diesel fuel, details
of the operating conditions are provided in Table 1. Since these
conditions have different injection timing, the difference between
h0 and h50 for each condition are different, and the corresponding
start of combustion and the end of combustion are different for
each of these conditions. Consequently it makes difficult to com-
pare the heat release data for different conditions. By using the
non-dimensional parameter Ci to reconstruct Ahrr instead of
instantaneous crank angle (h) can produce a form of apparent
heat release chart (Fig. 2a and b), which provides more informa-
tion about combustion and it is easier to compare the data from
different operating conditions.
In Fig. 1a and b, it is not clear where the centre of combustion is
and the exact location where the combustion is taking place with
respect to centre of combustion. These aspects can be viewed in
ð2Þ
Fig. 2a and b at any instant on the Ahrr-Ci chart. It is possible to

In our recent work [28] the Wiebe equation has been presented
in a modified form and it is expressed as:
"  mþ1 #
h  h0
f ¼ 1  exp ðln 0:5Þ ð3Þ
h50  h0

The modified version of Wiebe equation has only one con-

stant compared to the original Wiebe Eq. (2) with two constants.
The constant ‘m’ in Eq. (3) can be determined from the
experimentally measured cylinder pressure data which has been
demonstrated in [28], and the deduction of Eq. (3) has been
given in Appendix [1]. The exponential term of the modified
Wiebe equation contains parameters such as h, h0 and h50 and
these parameters are combined to be expressed in the form of
a non-dimensional parameter hhh o
50 ho
. This non-dimensional param-
eter is called the combustion burn factor and it represents the
combined effects of h0, h50 and h of each combustion condition
and it is denoted by the notation Ci. Substitution of combustion
burn factor in the modified Wiebe equation results in Eq. (4). It
can be seen that Ci is the only parameter that affects the burnt
fraction and it will be a valuable parameter to study the heat
release rate analysis.

f ¼ 1  exp½ðln 0:5ÞC mþ1

i  ð4Þ
Many investigations have been reported to study the effects of
combustion and emission process with respect to h0 and h50 inde-
pendently. It is for the first time the combined effect of these
parameters on engine combustion performance was considered
[28]. The benefits of using Ci for heat release analysis have been
shown in the following discussion.
Fig. 1a and b shows the variation of Ahrr plotted against
instantaneous crank angle for different engine operating condi- Fig. 1. (a and b) Apparent heat release rate against instantaneous crank angle (h) at
tions A2, A4, A6 and A7 (at a load of 2.7 bar BMEP) and A8, different engine operating conditions at low load and high load for diesel fuel.
 G. Abbaszadehmosayebi, L. Ganippa / Applied Energy 122 (2014) 143–150 145

Table 1
Engine operating conditions.

Condition Injection timing, bTdc Injection pressure IMEP

(deg) (bar) (bar)
A1 9 2.7
A2 9 2.7
A3 6 1000 2.7
A4 6 1200 2.7
A5 3 800 2.7
A6 3 1200 2.7
A7 0 1200 2.7
A8 9 800 5
A9 9 800 5
A10 9 1200 5
A11 6 800 5
A12 6 1000 5
A13 6 1200 5
A14 3 800 5
A15 0 800 5

extract information about where the temporal location of combus-

tion is with respect to the start of combustion, the end of combus-
tion and the centre of combustion. As described below:

 Ci = 0 corresponds to start of combustion so all charts have the

same starting point and it makes easier to compare the charts
at any time in terms of apparent heat release rate.
 Ci = 1 corresponds to centre of combustion, so any point (tem-
poral position) on the Ahrr-Ci chart can be identified with
respect to start of combustion, end of combustion and centre
of combustion. The apparent heat release rate value at the cen-
tre of combustion can be read directly from the chart.
 Ci corresponding to end of fast combustion (e.g. based on CA95)
is known, and the value of apparent heat release rate at the end
of fast combustion can be determined. Similarly Ci correspond-
ing to f = 0.05at CA5 is known. Thus the position of apparent
heat release rates are known directly from the chart at
f = 0.95andf = 0.05and the heat release rate values can be com-
pared against different engine operating conditions as it is con-
stant for a given load.
 The apparent heat release rate at each burnt fraction can be
determined from the chart and the slope of the apparent heat
release rate can be compared for different engine operating
conditions.
It was found that Ci variation does not follow the variation of
other two parameters h0 and h50 but it simultaneously represents
the effect of those parameters on the engine combustion and
performance.
By considering the relation of Ci, it is evident that the only
parameters which affect the value of Ci are h0 and h50. To calculate
the location of h0 and h50, the values of Ahrr for complete combus-
tion period need to be calculated precisely. The error in determin-
ing the parameters h0 and h50 can result in an error on Ci
calculation. Therefore any error in the calculation of the Ahrr re-
sults in an error in the determination of Ci.
By considering Eq. (1) it is clear that p and c are the main
parameters that influence the value of Ahrr. The effect of p and c
along with the heat loss to the cylinder walls on the heat release
analysis were discussed in [29–31]. It was found that c signifi-
cantly affects the magnitude of heat release rate (peak value) and
the shape of the cumulative heat release rate. It has been shown
that specific heat ratio (c) is the most important thermodynamic
property that is used for heat release analysis in engines [32,33].
It is well known that c is a function of charge temperature and
charge composition and it varies during the complete combustion
period. The variation of c at each crank angle position for the entire
Fig. 2. (a and b) Apparent heat release rate expressed in terms of non-dimensional
combustion burnt factor (Ci) at different operating conditions at low load and high
load for diesel fuel.
combustion period has been discussed in [29,32,34,35]. Several
correlations have been proposed to calculate c in terms of charge
temperature [32,34–36]. Using the instantaneous value of c can re-
duce error in heat release rate calculations. It has also been re-
vealed that the effect of varying c during a cycle is relatively
small and it is more important to use correct value of c for the
overall combustion process [29]. The effects of temperature and
equivalence ratio on c have been investigated and it has been
shown that the relation between c and temperature is almost lin-
ear [37], similarly the variation with equivalence ratio is significant
but much smaller than the effect of temperature [29]. Horn et al.
[33] and Asad et al. [37] have considered constant value of c for
their heat release calculations for the entire combustion period.
Brunt et al. [29] have calculated the error induced on the Ahrr
due to temperature and c value, and found that the maximum er-
ror on the Ahrr are mainly due to the use of incorrect value of c. It
was concluded that the effect of c on Ahrr was more significant
when compared to temperature and it was also revealed that the
effect of pressure on Ahrr was not that significant.
In this work a new method of determining of c from the funda-
mental principles will be presented. In addition to this the effect of
c and the cylinder pressure on the calculated heat release rates and
the associated combustion burn factor (Ci) will be discussed.
2. Experiments
A four cylinder 2 litre Ford Puma Zetec 16 valves High Speed Di-
rect Injection (HSDI) diesel engine was employed to carry out these
investigations using diesel, Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) and
Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME) fuels which were tested for two engine
loads, at different injection timings and at different injection pres-
sures while the engine speed was kept constant at 2000 rpm for all
146 G. Abbaszadehmosayebi, L. Ganippa / Applied Energy 122 (2014) 143–150

conditions. The pressure data was acquired using a fast response

piezo-resistive pressure transducer, and the data was acquired
over 100 cycles to minimise the error due to cycle to cycle fluctu-
ation. The average coefficient of variation was found to be less than
1%. The engine was equipped with sensors, to measure and control
the engine torque, speed, injection parameters, cylinder pressure
and fuel consumption. Details of the test matrix are presented in
Table 1 and the engine specifications are listed in Table 2. Experi-
ments number A1 to A7 were considered at low load operation
(BMEP = 2.7 bar) and experiments number A8 to A15 were consid-
ered for high load operation (BMEP = 5 bar) for all three fuels.

3. Theory and results

Fig. 3. Variation of in-cylinder pressure against combustion volume. The average of
3.1. Determination of c the slope of compression and expansion line provide c value (pV diagram).

The values of c are normally obtained from the logarithmic plot

of pressure and volume as discussed in Fig. 3. This figure presents
measured cylinder pressure versus cylinder volume on a logarith-
mic plot. The slope of two linear parts of chart during expansion
and compression presents c value for expansion and compression
processes respectively; the average of the two provides appropri-
ate c value that can be used for heat release rate equations. The
average c values for all the experimental data have been presented
in Fig. 4. As it was expected the data indicates that the average val-
ues of c obtained for different fuels under different engine operat-
ing conditions were different. The difference in c values are mainly
related to variation in heat exchange and chemical composition of
charge within the cylinder. These factors result in different cylin-
der pressure and temperature in the combustion chamber. Conse-
quently the values for c were different depending upon the Fig. 4. The value of specific heat ratio c obtained using logarithmic pV diagram for
operating condition. If the combustion duration is considered dif- the engine operation conditions A1-A15 described in Table 1. The most commonly
used value in literature c = 1.35 is plotted by dotted line.
ferently (CA5-CA90 or CA5-CA95) consequently this technique pro-
vides different values for c. Also the calculated values of c during
compression and expansion periods are different as seen in Fig. 3. and
A new methodology has been proposed to determine the value    
   dV 
of c from the pressure and volume variations based on the centre of V dp
dh
 p dV dh
 p dh 50
 V dp
dh
50 
combustion location. The apparent heat release rate Eq. (1) for the K2 ¼  dV  ð9Þ
centre of combustion can be rewritten as: V dp
dh
þ p dh 50
50
   
c dV 1 dp The Ahrr on the left hand side of Eq. (7) and the Ahrr50 term on
Ahrr50 ¼ p þ V ð5Þ
c  1 dh 50 c  1 dh 50 the right hand side of Eq. (7) can be calculated by using Eqs. (1) and
(5) respectively. Substituting the values of Ahrr from Eq. (1) in Eq.
Eq. (5) can be re-arranged to determine the values of c as described
(7), the best instantaneous or mean value of c can be obtained for
in Eq. (6).
  each crank angle or for the entire combustion by minimising the
Ahrr50 þ V dp residual value (Residual Function) of Eq. (10).
dh
c¼   50 ð6Þ  
Ahrr 50  p dV c dV 1 dp
dh 50 RF ¼ pþ V  ðAhrr 50  K 1 þ K 2 Þ ð10Þ
c  1 dh c  1 dh
Substituting c from Eq. (6) in Eq. (1), the Ahrr can be expressed P
in terms of Ahrr50 and K1 and K2 as: Fig. 5 indicates the variation of sum of square value of RF ( RF2)
plotted against different c values for three fuels at the operating
Ahrr ¼ Ahrr 50  K 1 þ K 2 ð7Þ
condition A3. It can be seen that the value of c = 1.34 provides a
Where: minimum in Eq. (10) for diesel, and 1.36 for RME and JME at the
corresponding engine operating condition. It was found that differ-
V dp þ p dV ent values of c did not influence the location of end of combustion.
K1 ¼  dh  dh  ð8Þ
dp
V dh þ p dVdh 50
The obtained values for c by using h50 position of Ahrr are plotted in
50
Fig. 6. Comparing two sets of values for c using the proposed new
Table 2
method and the logarithmic pV diagram shows that by using the
Specification of engine. proposed method the value for c is relatively higher for most of
operating conditions as can be seen in Fig. 7a–c for diesel, RME
Number of cylinders 4
Cylinder bore 86 mm
and JME fuels respectively. Using logarith1mic pV diagram re-
Crankshaft stroke 86 mm vealed that c values during the expansion period is higher than c
Swept volume 1998.23 cm3 value during the compression period. But the proposed method is
Compression ratio 18.2 based on the calculated heat release rate and the centre of combus-
Con-rod length 155 mm
tion during the combustion period; therefore the calculated values
Vc 29.04404 cm3
of c are relatively higher compare to that which was obtained by
 G. Abbaszadehmosayebi, L. Ganippa / Applied Energy 122 (2014) 143–150 147

using the logarithmic pV diagram. In general the calculated c val-

ues from the proposed method are comparable to c values ob-
tained from the expansion period using logarithmic pV diagram
and similar results were observed for RME and JME.

3.2. Error associated with pressure on Ahrr and c

The error associated with pressure measurements and its effect

on the calculated Ahrr will be discussed in the following section. If
pm is the measured pressure at each crank angle and if the actual
pressure is pa then the error associated with the pressure measure-
ments can be expressed by a coefficient delta (d), so the actual
pressure can be expressed as:
Fig. 6. The values of c obtained using the method based on centre of combustion
pa ¼ d  pm ð11Þ (h50) position for the engine operating conditions A1-A15. The most commonly used
value in literature c = 1.35 is plotted by dotted line.
Substituting the correct pressure value in the Ahhr Eq. (1) results in
heat release rate expression ðdQ Þ that is corrected for the errors
dh a
associated with pressure measurements which is expressed as:
 
dQ c dV 1 dp
¼ p þ V a ð12Þ
dh a c  1 a dh c  1 dh
The subscript a is referred to actual value of heat release rate
that has been corrected for pressure. Eq. (1) and Eq. (12) can be
combined to show that the actual value of heat release rate that
is corrected for errors from pressure measurements can be ex-
pressed as the product of coefficient d and the heat release rate
from the uncorrected pressure data.
   
dQ dQ
¼d ð13Þ
dh a dh m
The Eq. (13) shows that the Ahrr data and the cumulative heat
release follow the accuracy of measured pressure values.
The measured pressure data shows that the variation of Ahrr
and the cumulative heat release due to pressure is only in the
range of ±0.2%. This finding is in a good agreement with [29].
The other parameter that affects the calculated apparent heat
release rate is the specific heat ratio c. As it was discussed in the
previous sections the specific heat ratio c are normally calculated
by using the logarithmic slope of the pV diagram [33,35] and the
value of c can be obtained from Eq. (14).
 
Ps
ln Pe
c¼   ð14Þ
Ve
ln Vs

The subscripts s and e indicate the start and the end of the adiabatic
compression or expansion interval. Applying the previously dis-
cussed error coefficient d to the specific heat ratio will result in

Fig. 7. (a–c) The value of c for the engine operating conditions A1-A15 for diesel
Fig. 5. Variation of sum of square value of Residual Function (RF) for three fuels fuel, RME and JME using the method based on centre of combustion (h50) position
(diesel, Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) and Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME)) at operating and pV diagram. The most commonly used value in literature c = 1.35 is plotted by
conditions A3. The absolute minimum of each curve provide the best c value. dotted line.
148 G. Abbaszadehmosayebi, L. Ganippa / Applied Energy 122 (2014) 143–150

(ps)a = d(ps)m and (pe)a = d(pe)m. Further substitution in Eq. (14) will
result in Eq. (15).
 
dðPs Þm
ln dðP e Þm
ca ¼   ¼ cm ð15Þ
Ve
ln Vs

Eq. (15) shows that the linear error on pressure data does not
affect the specific heat ratio c, this finding is in a good agreement
with the work reported in [35].

3.3. Effect of variation of c on Ahrr

In order to elucidate the specific heat ratio effects on the Ahrr, Fig. 9. Variation of maximum absolute error (b) for Apparent Heat Release Rate for
Eq. (1) has been differentiated with respect to c and it is expressed three fuels (diesel, Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) and Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME))
as: at engine conditions A1-A15.

d 1 dV 1 dp
ðAhrrÞ ¼ p  V ð16Þ
dc ðc  1Þ2 dh ðc  1Þ2 dh
By applying p and V values for each condition and applying the
most commonly used value c = 1.35, the absolute error value at
each crank angle can be obtained. The error induced on Ahrr for a
small variation of 1% of the value of the specific heat ratio c has
been presented in Fig. 8 as a function of crank angle for diesel,
RME and JME corresponding to condition A3. The absolute error
caused by the variation of specific heat ratio is denoted by the
notation b. It is clearly evident from Fig. 8 that the maximum abso-
lute error occurs at the crank angle where the Ahrr has its highest
magnitude. The negative value of absolute error indicates that an
overestimation of c value results in an underestimation of the Ahrr
and vice versa, this observation was in good agreement with the
works presented in [35,37]. The peak value of Ahrr varies with Fig. 10. Apparent heat release rate relative error (a) for a small change in c value,
chemical composition of fuel and engine operating conditions, so dc = 0.01, at the engine operating condition A3.
eventually the peak value of b varies accordingly and this has been
observed for the rest of the engine operating conditions as shown
in Fig. 9. The value of the maximum absolute error b caused by a
small variation (1%) to the specific heat ratio for condition A1-
A15 was found to be 2.42 J/deg. Fig. 10 indicates the relative Ahrr
error (a) at each crank angle. This was determined by dividing
the absolute Ahrr error (b) by the magnitude of Ahrr at each crank
angle. The negative values for a indicates the opposite effect of c
value variation on Ahrr. According to Fig. 11 the maximum a values
for the operating conditions A1-A15 was found to be 4% which cor-
responds to JME fuel at condition A2. This shows that for the cho-
sen operating condition (A1-A15) a small change (1%) in the
value of c can result in an uncertainty of up to 4% of the calcu-
lated Ahrr. The 4% uncertainty in the calculated values of Ahrr did
not affect the start of combustion h0 and the location of the peak
of the heat release rate (hmax).
Fig. 11. Variation of the maximum value relative Apparent Heat Release Rate error
for three fuels (diesel, Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) and Jatropha Methyl Ester
(JME)) at the engine operating conditions A1-A15.

3.4. Effect of variation of c on cumulative heat release

The cumulative value of the apparent heat release (Cum.Hrr) is

constant for a given combustion. The absolute error induced on the
Cum.Hrr due to the variation of the specific heat ratio c can be de-
duced from Eq. (17). The deduction of this equation is provided in
[Appendix 2]. Since the cumulative value of the apparent heat re-
lease is constant for a given combustion the absolute error induced
on the Cum.Hrr by the variation of c does not depend upon the
crank angle h.
d 1
ðCum:HrrÞ ¼ :pV ð17Þ
Fig. 8. Absolute Apparent heat release rate error value, dc = 0.01, for the engine dc ðc  1Þ2
operating condition A3.
 G. Abbaszadehmosayebi, L. Ganippa / Applied Energy 122 (2014) 143–150 149

 mþ1
The absolute error values were calculated and it was found that h50  ho
the uncertainty induced on the calculated cumulative heat release ln 0:5 ¼ a ð1:2Þ
Dh
corresponds to a maximum of 4% for a variation of 1% of c value for
the chosen operating condition. Rearranging Eq. (2) and taking natural logarithm on both sides
results in Eq. (5)
4. Conclusion
 mþ1
h  ho
lnð1  f Þ ¼ a ð1:3Þ
Dh
 It has been shown that the burnt fraction f of Wiebe equation is
only a function of newly defined dimensionless parameter com- Dividing Eq. (1.3) by Eq. (1.2) and further simplification results
bustion burn factor (Ci), thus it improved the interpretation of in the proposed modified version of Wiebe Eq. (1.4) where the f is
heat release data. expressed in terms of h, h0, h50 and m.
 A new method was proposed to calculate instantaneous and "  mþ1 #
h  ho
mean value of c by using the location of centre of combustion. f ¼ 1  exp ðln 0:5Þ ð1:4Þ
Since the calculated value of c was obtained based on the centre h50  ho
of combustion and the calculated heat release rates, the calcu-
The modified version of Wiebe equation has only one constant
lated value of c is relatively higher compare to that which
compared to the original Wiebe equation, and this constant can be
was obtained by using the logarithmic pV diagram.
determined against experimentally measured cylinder pressure
 It has been shown that measured in-cylinder pressure did not
data.
affect the value of heat capacities ratio significantly. The abso-
lute induced error on the Apparent Heat Release Rate (Ahrr)
and the cumulative heat release were found to follow the accu- Appendix B.2
racy of cylinder pressure measurement.
 The absolute error on the calculated Ahrr with respect to c var- By definition Cum.Hrr is the integration of Ahrr function during
ies against the crank angle and the maximum error was combustion:
observed at the peak position of Ahrr. It was also found that Z b

an overestimation of c resulted in an underestimation of the Cum:Hrr ¼ Ahrr:dh

a
peak of the Ahrr and vice versa.
 The uncertainty in the calculated values of c does not affect the Differentiating the definition of Cum.Hrr in respect to c:
start of combustion (h0) and the location of the peak of the heat Z b
d d
release rate (hmax) but the location of 50% of heat release (h50) Cum:Hrr ¼ Ahrr:dh ð2:1Þ
dc dc a
has marginally shifted, and this shifting is larger for high load
in compare to low load. Z !
 The average variation in c value at wide range of engine operat- d 1 dV 1 dp
Cum:Hrr ¼ p  V  dh
ing conditions with respect to most commonly used value of dc ðc  1Þ2 dh ðc  1Þ2 dh
c = 1.35 was found to be less for the method based on h50 - ð2:2Þ
position in compare to the method based on pV diagram for Die-
sel , RME and JME. d 1
 The absolute error on Ahrr and the cumulative heat release was Cum:Hrr ¼ :pV ð2:3Þ
dc ðc  1Þ2
found to be 4% when the value of c was varied by 1%.

Acknowledgement
Authors are thankful to Andrew Selway, Kenneth Anstiss and
Clive Barrett for their technical help during measurements.
Authors would like to acknowledge the support from UKIERI for
funding this Project.
Appendix A.1
Modified. Wiebe equation
The crank angle corresponding to 50% of cumulative amount of
heat released during combustion process corresponds to the condi-
tion f = 0.5 and h = h50 so Eq. (2) can be rewritten as:
" 
mþ1 #
h50  ho
0:5 ¼ exp a ð1:1Þ
Dh
It was decided to choose f = 0.5 due to the importance of centre
of combustion and it is more stable than f = 0.1 (influenced by fluc-
tuations from injection) and f = 0.9 (influenced by late combustion
oscillations) therefore the combustion phasing is generally charac-
terized with respect to CA50. Eq. (1.1) applies to centre of combus-
tion, by taking natural logarithm to both sides of Eq. (1.1) results in
Eq. (1.2).
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